709-218-7927 The Landfall Garden House 60 Canon Bayley Road CANADA A0C 1B0 |
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By GO Transit to Guelph for the Day – Planning
Getting There and Back
From Union Station to Guelph Central GO:
5:50 |
8:20 |
2.5 |
|---|---|---|
6:25 |
9:02 |
2.6 |
8:30 |
11:15 |
2.8 |
10:50 |
13:00 |
2.2 |
This looks like a particularly gruelling trip; It is about an hour by private car, between two and three hours by bus. Why so long? (“The City of Guelph is located approximately 55 miles (89 km) west of Toronto”)
There are intermediate buses (7:00 and 7:30) that give you 90 and 60 minutes respectively to hang around the Brampton GO station, if that’s your thing. I suppose one could wander off and grab a breakfast in Brampton.
From Guelph Central GO to Union Station:
15:45 |
19:00 |
3.3 |
|---|---|---|
16:55 |
19:30 |
2.6 |
18:00 |
20:25 |
2.4 |
20:05 |
22:20 |
2.3 |
This looks even more gruelling trip; It is about an hour by private car, between 2½ and 3½ by bus. Why so long?
The 16:55 requires a transfer at Brampton (but see notes above) as does the 19:55, but both transfers are only 5 minutes, so no stopping off for supper.
That said, a short stopover in Georgetown or in Acton might be interesting; in which case one of those “All-Day” paper tickets is called for rather than the Presto card.
Union |
York Mills |
Guelph Central |
Duration |
Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
10:50 |
13:00 |
2.17 |
- |
|
5:50 |
8:02 |
2.20 |
0.03 |
|
11:50 |
14:05 |
2.25 |
0.08 |
|
6:45 |
9:02 |
2.28 |
0.12 |
|
11:30 |
14:05 |
2.58 |
0.42 |
|
6:25 |
9:02 |
2.62 |
0.45 |
|
8:30 |
11:15 |
2.75 |
0.58 |
|
11:20 |
14:05 |
2.75 |
0.58 |
|
11:45 |
15:05 |
3.33 |
1.17 |
|
9:30 |
13:00 |
3.50 |
1.33 |
|
10:30 |
14:05 |
3.58 |
1.42 |
|
7:30 |
11:15 |
3.75 |
1.58 |
|
7:00 |
11:15 |
4.25 |
2.08 |
|
8:45 |
13:00 |
4.25 |
2.08 |
Of course, I could travel by Toronto Transit Commission to York Mills subway station and leave from there.
The table above, sorted in ascending sequence of duration shows that the 5:50 from Union is best; but that’s a ½ walk downtown, the 6:45 from York Mills is next best – with a ½ hour subway ride, and then the 6:25 from Union.
The 5:05 drops me in Guelph an hour before the day-pass kicks in, but perhaps that is the time for a stroll around the downtown core and a breakfast.
It should be noted (and Go Transit 416-869-3200 confirms this) that I place myself at the mercy of the buses. For an example, the 5:50 a.m. from Union assumes five minutes in Brampton to transfer from the 31H to the 31F bus. If the incoming bus is over 5 minutes late I’d be stuck there until 7:35 – a wait of 50 minutes.
The return trip:-
Guelph Central |
York Mills |
Union |
Duration |
Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
15:45 |
19:00 |
3.25 |
1.08 |
|
16:55 |
19:20 |
2.42 |
0.25 |
|
18:00 |
20:25 |
2.42 |
0.25 |
|
20:05 |
22:15 |
2.17 |
0.00 |
|
20:05 |
22:20 |
2.25 |
0.08 |
Guelph, like Hamilton, offers two routes there and back. Supposing that I go to Guelph on the 5:50 from Union, I might travel back on the 16:55 via York Mills. The 20:05 offers both choices, not much between them, and it’s still a half-hour home, either a walk up Bay Street or a subway ride down from York Mills.
Return trips into Toronto are sparser than outgoing trips (where do the extra buses end up?), so this may be the first time that I treat myself to a Steak Dinner and catch a late (20:05) and somnolent bus ride home.
Guelph Transit
The system appears to be a radial system, rather like Peterborough.
For example, the #13 is the small red loop that goes out to two o’clock while the #2 is the large blue loop that takes in the western part of the city. Buses run every 20 minutes during peak hoiur, every 30 minutes off-peak, but if this means coming-home-to-rooset as in Peterborough, it is a good thing; I’ll never miss a connnection!
If a couple of the timetables are any guide, buses leave on the quarter hour in off-peak, on the twenty-minute in peak. That should make it easy to time my cup of coffee.
I suspect that all bus routes (with the exception of #1) pass through Guelph Central Station which lies handy to Speed River with picnic-lunch spots.
Sadly the bus routes are not arrayed in sequence on the platforms (“Here’s the #4, I can’t be that far from the #6 ....”) but this may be due to the matter of orienting the bus for the proper direction on exit.
Bus Routes
No. |
Name |
|---|---|
2 |
West Loop |
3 |
East Loop |
4 |
York |
5 |
South Gordon |
6 |
Harvard-Ironwood |
7 |
Kortright-Downey |
8 |
Stone Road Mall |
9 |
Waterloo |
10 |
Imperial |
11 |
Willow West |
12 |
General Hospital |
13 |
Victoria Road Rec Centre |
14 |
Grange |
15 |
University-College |
16 |
Southgate |
20 |
Northwest Industrial |
50 |
Stone Road Express |
56 |
Victoria Express |
57 |
Harvard Express |
58 |
Edinburgh Express |
Twenty bus routes are too many to do in one day, but they appear to offer a variety of choice and take in everything from an industrial area (#2) to dormitories (#7).
A vague plan is to ride the routes #2, #3, #10 and #13 with an optional tour of the university on route #1 from routes #2 or #3.
Fares
A Wikipedia article states:
- Fares effective September 1, 2011
- $ 3.00 per ride
- Senior - 10 tickets for $ 18.50
- Day Pass - $7.00 Monday-Friday the Day Pass is valid for one person after 9:15 a.m. – but since I’ll likely not be arriving until just after 9:00 that ought not be a problem.
- GO Transit Integrated Fare $0.60 per ride with valid GO Fare media (Single ride, day pass, and Presto Card ) .
I have read elsewhere that the Go-Integrated is now restricted to extreme peak hours, like seven in the morning; check before you go. To my mind it is no big deal if one is purchasing a day-pass.
Paper Bus map
This is becoming a bit of an issue with me; I depend on a paper map to help me make decisions during the day; I do not lug a laptop with me and do not carry a web-based phone. I sent an email Monday, July 20, 2015 asking if a paper map was available; I hope to collect one when I arrive.
The general reply was that I can BUY one for $2 from City Hall. Apparently they will not be available at the bus terminal!
Downtown
A web page suggests everything from Accessories to Travel, but I saw listed no model railway shops nor second-hand bookstores; I have no doubt that the latter exists for Guelph is a university town
A web page suggests 470 businesses, of which about 100 are eating places (University Town), but I suspect that many of the 8 variety stores and 54 services (“driver training”) are out in the ‘burbs!
The Speed River (Wellington and Woolwich streets) encloses the downtown core to the north and east; Norfolk and Gordon streets form a southern boundary.
Things To Do
The Art Gallery of Guelph, Boarding House Gallery, McCrae House Tea and Tour Program, ... more research needed here.
Libraries
Monday: |
9 - 8 |
|---|---|
Tuesday: |
9 - 8 |
Wednesday: |
9 - 8 |
Thursday: |
9 - 8 |
Friday: |
9 - 5 |
Saturday: |
9 - 5 |
Sunday: |
Closed |
There is a main branch quite close to the GO Terminal, and four or five (or six?) other branches. All branches have the same hours – nine to eight – which regularity makes it easy to remember whether or not the library is open!
Losing Faith
It is quite easy to lose faith; it can slip away in decremental amounts until it is all gone:-
Thank you for contacting the City of Guelph.
Please see the answers below.
The City service or staff that can best respond to your inquiry is Guelph Transit. They can be reached directly at 519-822-1811 or by email at transit@guelph.ca.
Please contact this City service using the contact information provided to receive an accurate and timely response to your inquiry.
Kind regards,
ServiceGuelph
I had sent what I thought was a rather nice request to a Guelph web page that described Guelph Transit Services. Turns out they replied to my enquiry with a scripted response, pasting in stuff which I had already read (but they weren’t to know that) and suggesting that I email a different department.
It bugs me that they didn’t save me some time by forwarding my email to the relevant department. I assume that Guelph City has sucumbed to the paranoid fear of Privacy Issues, which bugs me even more, because emailing (to an info@ address) a request about a map of public transit is hardly a confidential matter.
They did tell me “You can purchase a full transit map for $2”, so assuming that Guelph is not out-of-stock like Hamilton, I might get lucky.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
I checked at the Union Bus terminal this morning – there is no direct/express bus to Guelph; It’s a two-hour hike.
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709 218 7927 CPRGreaves@gmail.com
Bonavista, Wednesday, June 03, 2020 6:12 AM
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